


a really long story

by bpitchbitch



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Angst, But mainly fluffy, Fluff, M/M, i made up a few children, if this fails it didn’t happen, it's just a line from the fic so, lowkey in love with her, one is a lesbian, sorta kind of angsty, that i'm posting at least, the "story" isn't even that long, this is my first fic in this fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 06:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16341332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bpitchbitch/pseuds/bpitchbitch
Summary: Almost a year after Simon and Baz broke up, Simon is unwillingly dragged to a band and orchestra concert for Penelope's daughters that will completely throw his life out of whack.





	a really long story

I’ve never once voluntarily gone to one of these band and orchestra concerts. Penelope guilts me every time normally with something along the lines of “but Simon you’re their godfather/uncle and they love you!” Obviously, it always works, though I haven’t been to keen on going since Baz and I split, after all, he is the band and orchestra teacher at the secondary school.  
Penelope and the girls got here about half an hour ago and I’m still getting ready. As I’m frantically buttoning up the last few buttons on my shirt, Pandora wanders in.  
“Hey Panda,” I say fiddling with the top button, knowing she despises her old pet name, she groans, “You nervous?” She shakes her head. “What about Ophelia? Is she?” She simply shrugs before tugging at my hand and then telling me it’s time to go. As I walk out, Penelope is rushing around frantically looking for her phone, before realizing it is in her pocket. 

“Are you’re sure you’re ok with this?” She asks me as she straightens my askew tie. She’s talking about Baz, again.

“Yes. I’m fine.” I say, trying my hardest not to roll my eyes. It doesn’t really bother me anymore, not being with Baz, I just miss him constantly being around like he was for six years. Though, I do see him occasionally when I pick the girls up from school or drop them off for their music lessons after school (because of course, he is the only half-decent violin teacher around). It’s just not the same.

The car ride to the school is full of chatter and life, Penelope and Micah had the great idea of carpooling so in addition to us five, crammed into Penny’s eight-seat minivan, there are two other equally as energetic girls and their instruments. I’m sat next to Ophelia who is nervous, as this is her last concert before she moves up to Sixth Form, her leg jiggling as she stares out the window. I place my hand on her shoulder and give her a reassuring squeeze, she turns to face me and smiles, her braces peeking out (she’s getting them off in May and she’s ecstatic). She seems to relax a lot more by the time we get to the school. 

By the time we get all the kids out of the car, the concert is about to begin. The girls rush in, Pandora and Ophelia hand in hand (which is so adorable, Penny stayed back to take a picture because “Memories, Simon”). I think Penny senses my nervousness because she drops Michas' hand and engulfs me in a hug, as she pulls away she loops her fingers through mine. We keep walking like that as we go on the hunt to find our seats, which ended up being in one of the first rows and search through the program for the girls’ names. 

The lights dim a bit, but it was still bright enough for the students to read the sheet music, and a few people make their way to the front of the stage. I recognize two as the headmasters of the lower and upper school. They make the typical “this has been a joyful experience” speech as I notice another figure approaching. I recognize it immediately as Baz. I feel myself stiffen a bit as I desperately turn my head to Penny, who shoots me an apologetic look as she pats my thigh, then I quickly divert my attention back to the stage. 

Baz’s speech begins with him talking about how much work everybody put into the concert and how amazing it was to see them grow. I can tell it’s his “teacher voice”, it’s a lot sterner than it usually is though, almost uncomfortable. I catch myself staring at his outfit, a well-fitting pair of black trousers and a light grey sweater (one of the many sweaters I bought him for Christmas) with a button up underneath, his glasses perched on the edge of his nose, and quickly glance up to his face. His eyes catch mine and he stops speaking for a moment, he quickly tears his eyes away and continues speaking. My breath hitches and I feel a bubble rising in my throat. I take a deep breath and briefly close my eyes as he introduces the first song. 

The band starts playing and my eyes focus on Baz, who is currently sitting towards the side waiting for the orchestra to play their song next. He seems unfocused as the song wraps and his students begin fiddling with their instruments and sheet music. He waltzes up to the music stand in the front, to begin conducting, but he lingers for a second staring directly at Ophelia, who seems to be averting her gaze away. She is old enough to know how hard it was for me, I feel terrible for putting the girls, especially her, in this position. They both know that their “Uncle” Baz and I were serious, so when we broke up it was hard for all of us for quite a while. Hell, it’s still hard for me now. (It was quite awkward though, as he is their teacher so they can’t really avoid him). 

The song begins and Baz goes into this trance where he focuses on nothing but the music. I love that about him, how he can easily become so focused on something he loves doing so much. I learned so many things about him in those six years, so much I never thought I would know. It hasn’t even been a year since we split. This has been the only year we haven’t spent together when we were in Watford the longest time we spent apart was the couple months, when Baz was kidnapped, and that wasn’t even that long of a time. The rest of the concert goes by in a blur, as I’m absorbed by my thoughts, and soon enough the curtains are being closed as I’m being ushered out of my seat and down the aisle to the back of the stage, behind the auditorium. 

We wait for the girls for a few minutes before I start getting antsy. I excuse myself and begin to wander the halls of the nearly empty school. I’ve been here a dozen times before, to surprise Baz with dinner when he stays extra late or if he forgets his laptop at home, it’s like I’m almost in a trance as I unconsciously make my way to Baz’s class. I stop for a moment, processing what happens when the knob turns and Baz himself walks out. We stare at each other for a few moments in excruciating silence, before I break the silence.

“Hey,” I croak, barely managing to form words “the concert was amazing.” He stares at me in astonishment, barely noticing I said anything.

“Thanks,” He manages a raspy whisper, he must have gone out to smoke because his voice is always a bit husky afterward, “You look nice.” His voice drops a bit.

I must look a bit shocked because he lets out a quick chuckle before tugging at my tie “This looks familiar,” I quickly glance down at the blue-ish-grey tie and I feel the heat rushing to my face. This is his, I borrowed it for Mordelia’s graduation last year because it went with my shirt, right before we broke up.  
“Um, if you want it back,” I start fiddling with the knot before his hands move mine away

“It’s fine. Keep it, it still looks good on you,” I see a faint blush creeping up his neck as he puts his hands back into his pockets “How have you been?”  
I could basically feel the awkwardness in the air. It’s never been like this between us, we’ve  
always fallen so easily into conversation but now we’re struggling to even make small talk. 

I nervously glance around before answering “Pretty good, you?” He stares into my eyes for a moment before ripping his gaze away and hyper-focusing on the light above us.

“Good,good. I’m fine,” I can see him struggling, I think he wants us to keep talking but he doesn’t know what to say. After a few moments of an awkward silence, he finally speaks again “Wanna go into my classroom?” Normally when he said that, we would go make out until our lips were swollen but now it was just a way to keep us talking. There are also no cameras in there, the school is such an old building that half of the rooms don’t have cameras (or at least functioning ones).

“Don’t you need to talk to the kids and their families?” I ask

“I should, but I don’t want to,” His response is snarky, I can see him relaxing as he cracks a smile. He turns the knob and walks in. I see his eyes quickly glance around the room, his smile slowly growing. “So this is completely against all my rules but,” he walks over to the other side of the room and rummages behind his desk, reaching for his bag. He searches through it for a second before pulling out a small bottle. Quickly unscrew the cap.

“Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch is that alcohol?” I exclaim in a hushed voice, as I’m trying to refrain myself from laughing.

“Depends,” he takes a swig, his mouth twitching almost forming a smirk “you want some?” I check my phone, I have five texts from Penny asking where I am. I text her that I ubered home because I wasn’t feeling well. She seems a bit upset but is overall pretty understanding. A little lie never hurt anyone (except maybe Pandora and Ophelia but I’ll make it up to them some other time). I click my mobile off and toss it on the seat next to me and nod my head eagerly as I reach for the bottle and quickly take a swig. 

“Vodka?” I scrunch my face up in response to the burning sensation that trickles down my throat “Your taste has changed.” I let out a small laugh as I pass it back. He just shrugs and drinks a bit more.  
“Today has been such a fucking stressful day,” He takes another swig before continuing “I definitely needed this.” Baz lets out a quick chuckle before passing it back to me

We continue like this for a while with the occasional banter, until the bottle is empty. At least an hour or two has passed by. I’ve seen Baz drunk too many times to count but this time seems different, this time he seems tense. 

We sit in silence for a bit, both trying to process everything and my eyes scan around his classroom. Everything is still exactly the same. Two rows of small desks, the closets lined with colorful music posters, and instruments piled up in the corner along with a handful of music stands. This room is so full of life and color, which is why I always have loved it so much. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the photo wall. Before, it was covered with pictures of Baz and I, the occasional Pitch family member (primarily Mordelia), and a couple pictures of the girls with Penny and Micah. I thought it might look different now, that the pictures of us would be taken down and replaced but they weren’t. They’re still up there. The picture of us at the bookstore, my first job, and a picture of us on our first date at the skating rink. There so many pictures of us, some many pictures of us looking so happy. So many memories just flooded back to me. Why hadn’t he taken them down after all this time? 

I could feel tears prickling the corners of my eye as one gradually makes its way down my cheek. I quickly wipe it away, hoping Baz didn’t notice but of course he did. Because he’s Baz. I see him jerk forward, his hand outstretched but almost immediately he retracts it, probably realizing he can’t do that anymore. He bites his lip, his fangs sticking out ever so slightly. I rest my elbows on my knees and duck my head between my arms. 

“I can’t, I shouldn’t be here” I manage to whisper as tears begin falling down my cheeks. I’m beginning to stand up but quickly Baz moves forward but this time he actually rests a hand on my shoulder “I-I,” I don’t manage to finish my sentence before another sob involuntarily lets out.  
“Simon,” he says, he sounds so calm and collected but honestly, I don’t think he is, I know when he’s pretending “I miss you so fucking much.” I hear his voice choking up. He pulls me into a tight hug and I feel myself relax in his embrace

“Why? Why did you leave me,” I whimper as I draw circles on his back, it was always something that helped me calm down, he quickly pulls away and grabs my hands.

“Even though it was years ago, I could tell that you still hadn’t figured everything out, with your magic being gone and just everything that was going on in your life.” He finally takes a break from speaking and breathes in deeply before his voice goes rough and tears start flowing “You can’t love someone else if you don’t love yourself,at least a little bit, Simon.” Finally, I just lose it, if I wasn’t crying before, that sent me over the edge. I’ve always internally hated who I am, it just had been drilled in my head by all the children's homes that being gay was a sin, so I’ve always hated that aspect of myself. Granted, being with Baz made everything a bit easier, I still hated it.

Then the whole thing with my magic and the Mage happened and everything went to hell. Though it was years ago, I still find myself waking up in the middle of the night because of nightmares. They’re either about being beaten up in the homes or the Mage, my goddamn father, trying to kill me. Finally, I’ve come to terms with everything but it took Baz leaving me to realize. Goddamnit, why does he always know what is best for me even when I don’t?

I stare into his grey eyes that I’ve longed for and for once, I have no clue what I’m doing. I don’t know how to react. Tears are still streaming down my face when Baz reaches over and grabs my shoulder

“Simon-” he says, his voice quivering. His left hand darts up to my face,quickly wiping away a tear, and cups the side. He stares at me for a few seconds. 

And then he kisses me.

All I could think about was our first kiss, in the woods on Christmas eve, and then the one on our third anniversary, which is when Penny and Micah adopted the girls who were 7 and 12 at the time. (Ophelia was almost 13 but they are biological sisters so Penny and Micah said “fuck it” and adopted them both. It was such an amazing time.) 

I break off the kiss and stare at him for a second, my lips slightly parted as I try and catch my breath “Shit, I’m so sorry Simon,” he mumbles as he quickly collects himself then stands up “if you want to go and forget this that’s fine.” He extends his hand out to help me up but instead of getting up and storming out, I stand up and smash our lips together. He lets out a soft, breathy, and obviously relieved laugh before resuming the kiss. 

We continue like this for a while, giddy and drunk (on love and alcohol) until we realize how late it’s getting. It’s been about four and a half hours since the concert. “Neither of us is fit to drive,” I laugh as we gather up our things that seemed to be scattered around the classroom “Want to just get a taxi? Or do you want to take the tube?” 

He thinks for a moment “Let’s just take the tube. Nobody is going to be on it at,” he checks the clock on the wall, “-11. Actually, that’s probably not the best idea. I thought it was a lot later.” He smirks and I chuckle. We start walking and make our way out of the building. I see his car, deserted in the parking lot, but we continue walking and head up to the main road. 

“Food,” I groan as we pass a pizza place that was basically screaming at me to come inside. Drunk me is even hungrier than sober me. “Can we go in and get something to eat?” I ask, well aware that I sound like a child but Baz just hums a small, content yes before grabbing my hand and pulling me inside.  
We settle down in a corner table, trying to hide the fact that we are obviously drunk, and just as we sit down I notice a collection of familiar faces. 

“Shit,” I mumble but I can’t suppress my laughter “It’s Ophelia and her friends.” I notice how close she was sitting to this girl, I think her name was Monroe, even though they had that whole side of the booth to themselves. Baz notices too because that sly fucker just winks at me. I let out another laugh and that makes them turn their heads in our direction. I tuck my head into the menu and just pray she didn’t see us. 

When the pizza gets here though, all hell breaks loose. We’re happily demolishing our first slices of pizza and keeping up a pleasant conversation when Ophelia and her friends stand up, tossing five-pound notes on the table, and pick up their belongings. I didn’t think that she would be able to see us but she obviously did as I hear her shoot a quick “you guys go, I’ll be right there” to her friends. She appears at our table moments later. 

“Hey, Si,” she glances at me, giving me a warm smile than with a confused and annoyed face she looks at Baz “Mr. Basilton Pitch” She shoots him a fake passive-aggressive smile I glare at her

“Ophelia Dorothy, do not be so rude!” I scold her while trying to maintain a straight face. I breathe in deeply “Don’t tell your Mom.” I beg while laughing. That seems to break the ice a bit because both Baz and Ophelia start laughing.

“Don’t tell her you lied to her, that you’re obviously drunk, or that you’re out with Baz?” she replies snarkily (she definitely learned that tone from Baz). Apparently, that is too much for my brain to comprehend so I just respond with a quick ‘yes’ then start grinning like an idiot. 

“Maybe we should get you home soon,” Baz jokes as he pokes at my arm “Shouldn’t you be getting home too, young lady?” He tries using his best teacher voice but is ultimately failing. She just laughs.

“I’m heading home soon. Just need to drop off Monroe, first,” she responds. We talk for a minute or so more before she heads out. We start getting ready to leave right after she exits. It’s almost 1:30 by the time we pay and head out.

We’re turning the corner, now I think we’re taking the tube again, when I see Ophelia pressed up against the wall by her “friend” Monroe, their lips never seemed to part. “That is definitely not something I needed to see,” I joke as I try to wipe the memory from my brain though I am glad she’s happy.

Finally, we make it to the tube station after what seemed like hours of walking, which according to Baz was only about fifteen-twenty minutes, and the tube quickly pulls up and we settle down in the nearest carriage. We decided just to head to Baz’s house as it was closer(among many other deciding factors).  
Our thighs and shoulders are touching as we’re sat in a nearly empty carriage. The only other people in the carriage are a few more couples, who are obviously drunk or high, and a young looking girl in a short dress with way too much makeup on. “It’s not 2008,” Baz snickers and points his head in the direction of the girl and I stifle a laugh. 

Finally, the tube pulls up to our stop and we get off. We walk for a few minutes, hand in hand, because why not? We might not feel this way tomorrow, so it seems like we’re just enjoying the moment as it is. 

Once we get to Baz’s flat, we drink a bit more and get sufficiently drunk once again. We had both sobered up quite a lot in the span of a few hours. We begin to share our feelings again, talking about how much we missed one another, then settle down to watch a movie (Finding Nemo to be exact). Though, we don’t really pay attention to what’s on the screen. 

After finishing the movie, we decide to watch another. Halfway through I decide I’m exhausted. I curl up into Baz’s side and pull the blanket we somehow accumulated over the span of the two movies, over my body as I begin to drift off to sleep. I feel Baz press a light kiss to my temple and whisper a sweet “Goodnight, love.” a smile spreads across my face as I let sleep engulf me.

I wake up the next morning on a couch to the familiar scent of Baz’s cologne. Immediately I feel a sense of happiness that I haven’t felt in a year. I reach out for my phone and I’m immediately overwhelmed by the ten missed calls from Penny. I remembered I was supposed to meet her for lunch. I check the time, 1:03 pm. I slept all morning. 

“Shit,” I murmur as I sit straight up, my eyes scanning the room for Baz. I spot him making some breakfast in the kitchen. His hair is dripping wet. He must’ve taken a shower. “Morning,” I say as I wrap my arms around his shoulders and press a kiss to his neck. He turns around and leans against the counter and pulls me closer, colliding my lips with his. I push away, remembering I have to call Penelope back,  
“One sec.” I quickly place a kiss on his cheek then head into his bedroom and call her back, dreading the moment she picks up. 

Just as I predicted, my ears are filled with angry shouts. Just as quick as she got angry, she calmed down. “Hey Pen,” I say when she finally gives me a chance to talk “Yeah, um hey. I’ll tell you later, ok? Love you bye!” I say quickly before she has the chance to respond. 

I quickly return to Baz right as he is shoveling some eggs onto plates. We eat in a comfortable silence, I’m too busy processing my thoughts. I spend about another hour there, it’s filled with stolen kisses and … some things that aren’t so PG. We end up taking the tube right back to the school, which is still as empty as it was yesterday because it’s Saturday and grab Baz’s car. He agreed to drive me to Penny’s house.

“So are we maybe getting back together?” I say, hoping the answer is yes but Baz lets out a soft laugh. 

“Maybe, one day at a time, Simon.” I smile and grab his hand. He pulls up in front of Penelope's house and puts the car in park. I stare at him for a few more minutes occasionally pecking a kiss to his lips, just thinking about how far we’ve come, then I give him one final kiss before I head in. The kiss lingers a lot longer than I intended 

“I should go,” I can hear myself smiling as I say that “before we get too excited.” That makes him laugh his usual soft laugh. I open the door and shoot him a smile over my shoulder before saying my goodbyes and heading inside the house. I watch him drive away before I open the door. I’m immediately confronted by an angry yet satisfied looking Penny.

“What the fuck was that?” She tries to say with a straight face but ends up laughing through each word. I see Ophelia heading up the stairs, she just winks at me and shoots me a smirk then walks away. God, she’s so much like Baz.

“It’s a long story,” I smile thinking back to the events of the last day “a really long story.”

**Author's Note:**

> so hello. this is my first fanfic that I'm actually posting! I really would appreciate some (constructive) criticism so either message me on Tumblr, bpitchbitch, or leave a comment! thanks for reading x.


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